1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a method of bonding fabric materials together into an integral structure, which method is suitable particularly for use in the production of quilts and garments. Further, the invention is directed to a seamless quilt formed by the use of such method.
2. Prior Art
Sewing is a long-lasting practice in the formation of quilts, garments and many different articles. For instance, a quilt also called a bedspread has been fabricated with top and bottom sheets sewn in the form of a bag and a soft padding filled and kept in place in the bag by patterned stitchings adapted to run piercingly alternately through an outer surface of each of the two sheets.
Fabric-to-fabric bonding is beginning to take the place of sewing among quilt or apparel manufactureres. One typical method of bonding fabrics together is illustrated in FIGS. 5A to 5C of the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 5A, a fabric sheet 10 is folded at its one longitudinal edge 10a back thereon and bonded thereat with use of a thermoplastic or thermosetting adhesive agent 16 commonly known in the art. FIG. 5B depicts adhesive joining of two similar or different fabrics using the agent 16, one base fabric 11 having bonded thereto one lengthwise end 12a of another mating fabric 12. A modified mode of bonding is viewed in FIG. 5C in which a fabric 13 is coated or dipped with the adhesive 16, thereby providing a bond line 14 for subsequent attachment to a companion fabric. To prevent dust deposition and hence insufficient adhesion, the bond line 14 is usually masked with a protective strip 15 such as a releasable paper. Bonding is finished, in each such instance, on a heated iron or a thermal press in common use.
The foregoing method of fabric-to-fabric bonding is of advantage as it is easy to perform without need for mechanical skill as is with a sewing machine and moreover capable of producing aesthetic seamless fabric articles. Such bonding method is desirable for quilt fabrication in particular since the ultimate product is obtainable without stitching holes over the outer surface thereof as against a sewn type of quilt. This will preclude the tendency of ticks or other insects to get intruded in the quilt, giving a strong impact to a hygienic sense of the user. Further advantageously, the user is immune from an itchy or offensive touch which is inherent to the sewn quilt and which is due to the tips of a feathery filler present in the quilt being liable to protrude out of the stitching holes.
A certain quilt of a seamless type is known as shown at 20 in FIGS. 6A and 6B. The quilt 20 has a quilt body 21 of a hollow, generally rectangular configuration including a top sheet 22 and a bottom sheet 23 held in bonded relation to each other along their peripheral edges. A plurality of partition walls 24 of a given fabric and a given dimension are arranged, in lattice fashion, to extend throughout the lengthwise and widthwise directions of the quilt body 21. By this arrangement, a multiplicity of compartments 26 are disposed in the quilt body 21 as seen at from 26a to 26x in FIG. 6B. Designated at 27 is a mass of a feathery filler loaded in each of the compartments 26 in a manner described hereinafter.
Each of the partition walls 24 is made up of two separate identical segments 24a, 24c adapted to be eventually interconnected together. The segment 24a has a binding end 24b, and the segment 24c has a similar binding end 24d, both binding ends being located opposite to each other and further pretreated with an adhesive agent 25 and masked with a protecting strip (not shown). The adhesive and strip used here are substantially the same characters described above in connection with the method of FIG. 5C.
In assembly, the partition segment 24a after being unmasked at the binding end 24b is adhesively attached onto an inner side of the top sheet 22 with the binding end 24b bent in an L shape, whereas the corresponding segment 24c is likewise united at the binding end 24d to an inner side of the bottom sheet 23. Bonding is completed by ironing or pressing with heat as stated above. The partition segments 24a, 24c in pair are thereafter connected at their free adjacent ends by a line of stitching 28 laid to run along the overall length of the partition wall 24. This procedure of assembly is repeated to form the partition wall 24 with a predetermined number of arrays and in two directions crosswise with the quilt body 21.
The top and bottom sheets 22, 23 once coupled together via the partition walls 24 are brought into adhesive contact with each other along the longitudinal and transverse edges thereof. At this stage of fabrication, one transverse edge of the quilt body 21 is held partly open for entry of the filler 27 as viewed at 29 on the left hand of FIG. 6A. Into each of the compartments 26 is successively blown the filler 27 in a given quantity on a padding device and through a selected compartment 26a positioned at the open edge 29 of the quilt body 21. Upon completion of the filler loading, the top and bottom sheets 22, 23 are superimposed one on the other at the open edge 29 and then sealed with an elongate adhesive fabric tape 30.
The above seamless quilt of the prior art, however, has a drawback in that it suffers structurally mechanical weakness. When subjected to considerable pulling forces in a direction perpendicular to the top or bottom sheet, this quilt tends to cause locally biased stresses at the regions where the partition walls have been bonded to that sheet, eventually leading to objectionable interlaminar separation and reduced service life.